Quixter – pay with your palm coming to a store near you soon

Trust the Swedes to be first with something that could transform the world’s payment systems, but the clever folk at Lund University have successfully tested out a Pay With Your Hand terminal which lets you buy your lunch or coffee simply by scanning your palm.

The clever technology works by analyzing the veins in the hand to build an identity for you, rather like using a fingerprint. Of course the difference here is it’s a lot harder to simulate (i.e. forge) the veins in a hand, than a fingerprint, which sounds like it could be a lot more secure in general.

And of course cutting someone’s hand off to get a free lunch could be tricky, as well as messy, to implement. The system also has a secondary PIN number requirement (the last four digits of your phone number) to add extra security, plus a time for the purchaser to check the amounts etc.

The system is in place in 16 locations on the Lund Uni campus, and has around 1600 users at the moment, and development team, led by enterprising engineering student Fredrik Leifland, is hoping to roll out the system to more than just cafeterias in the future, including the general retail and banking sectors. Clever chappie!